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5 Facebook Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Facebook is the top social media network for a reason and there are 5 key Facebook marketing mistakes that marketers need to avoid today on this powerful marketing platform.

A key reason Facebook is a powerful platform for marketers is the time spent by users on Facebook.  Recent stats released by Facebook show U.S. users are spending on average 40 minutes per day total on the platform in bursts of 2-5 minute increments.

The majority of this time spent is on mobile devices, particularly the mobile app, and it is spent surfing the news feed.  So within that backdrop what do we need to avoid?

Many marketers are not keeping up with Facebook shifts.  What mattered and worked a year ago on Facebook for marketing is often not working today.  It's critical to stay current and use the latest tools and features that are working.  Let's dive into 5 things to avoid and what really matters today!

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5 Facebook Marketing Mistakes Podcast Video

Facebook is a powerful tool to market your business and brand.  

People spend an enormous amount of time on the site, the age demographics span all major buyer profiles, and the people use the site daily.  A bonus is that Facebook gives businesses plenty of tools to use for successfully engaging your ideal audience.

Likely you are using Facebook for your business already if you’re a reader here.  The question is whether you are using it well!  Many businesses continue to make mistakes when using Facebook for marketing. These mistakes are costly and hamper an overall marketing strategy.

Here are 5 mistakes that you need to avoid when using Facebook for marketing.    

  1. Not Using Facebook Ads   

To truly reach the right audience on Facebook, some money must be spent. Many businesses, especially small ones, don't have unlimited funds and must carefully construct cost-effective, engaging ads. However, it's possible to make mistakes in this area that can waste time, money and fail to earn attention.   

Facebook determines potential ad reach mainly by budget size. Ad cost must be factored in the size of your target audience and the length of time the ad will run. If the budget is too low, there can be a dramatic reduction in reach. Trying to take a lower budget and stretch it can be wasteful as it will be less likely to have the desired effect.   

How to Avoid:  When working with a limited budget, make certain the money is being directed toward strategies that are proven to work. First, make use of Facebook's Power Editor tool. It allows users to specify, in great detail, where they want their ads placed, and it provides information on how well ads do in certain niches. Ads placed in mobile news feeds for example often work better than other potential placements such as the desktop sidebar.   As well, if your dollars are limited, limit your ad time length.  It’s better to go shorter duration and have more impact than to go long and limited.

  1. Not Seeking to Engage Your Audience   

Marketing, forming communities and making human connections go hand in hand. In an age of social media, this is even more evident. There are a number of ways your business can make the mistake of ignoring this human link including:

Talking "at" your followers.  This is simply a turnoff. When your Facebook content is focused all on the brand and not the followers, it isolates followers and makes the page appear less approachable. Because engagement leads to your business being displayed to a wider audience, ignoring audiences is not the way to go.   

How To Avoid:  Create your posts around people; analyze fans & followers, and make an effort toward humanizing your brand. Move away from a monologue and create a dialogue between followers and the brand. Share relevant viral content or ask questions directly or in polls which will give followers a voice. When a negative comment shows up, don't ignore it, it can seem as though the brand does not value its customers. Instead, respond with a kind, individualized manner to try to alleviate grievances. This shows that person and all watching that your brand is human and does care.  

Understanding the followers on a Facebook page is easier with the Insights tool that Facebook offers. To effectively market to someone, you need to know who is already being reached.  With Insights, you can see the posts that are getting the most likes and engagement, active fans, and follower demographics.  Learn from these items as you plan new content to share.

  1. Using the Wrong Post Types   

Quality content is important to marketing in any media. It's one of the backbones of your marketing campaigns. Weak content that comes off as a continuous sales pitch or a boring mess of information isn't going to get much attention, or at least, not for very long. Common marketing mistakes regarding content are:

Lengthy Content - Facebook content that is too long isn't optimal for reaching customers.  Facebook news feeds are often cramped with lots of posts vying for the attention of Facebook users. Lengthy text-only content can turn off those users as they look for content that is easy to scan through quickly.  Unless you are getting great engagement already, beware of 500 word posts!

Bland Content - Employing the same type of content repeatedly gets old fast. Because Facebook is a visual medium, not including visuals and video can leave existing text content feeling a bit bare and boring.   

How to Avoid:  Content that's relevant, attractive and helpful is the type of content that will be invaluable to your marketing. Optimize your content so that it will be rich with important information in a compact form.  And think visual!  

Don't overload your followers. The ideal character count for many Facebook posts will usually be around 150 characters with an upper limit of 250 characters. Integrate multiple content types into your posts.  It has been frequently shown that pictures, video, and infographics and other visual content receives more engagement that basic text content.      

  1. Avoiding Facebook Live   

It takes courage to go LIVE the first time but it’s an important “next step” in your marketing.

Why?  Because Facebook gives priority to Live and if you want to reach the majority of your fan base and use a method where your fans are notified in app that you are online on your Facebook Page, then you need to use Facebook Live.

Often due to discomfort or fear businesses are avoiding trying Facebook live.  I recently helped a business through this.  They are a retail B2C shop and one of the owners did such a good job with welcoming people who walked in and showing them around that I explained we needed to do this for Facebook Live.  Ultimately I was the “new guest” and I had them going live showing me around the store and it worked great!  Start simple and be consistent in doing live and you can gain traction!

  1. Inconsistent Posting and Updating   

Although it seems like a basic rule, it's not unheard of for businesses to not update their Facebook pages regularly. Many businesses have more than one social media profile. As a result, some pages end up getting neglected. This makes it appear to possible followers that the page has been abandoned, and potential fans will steer clear.   

How to Avoid:  Set a regular update schedule. When followers learn to expect regular updates, they're more likely to keep coming back. Take time to fill out all the page's sections. Make sure the about page is properly filled out and provides relevant information and includes links to the main website or blog.

Know that “regular updates” means a few times a week at minimum if not multiple daily posts.

So there you have a wrap on some more common Facebook mistakes and how to avoid them.  Facebook is a great place for businesses to connect with their potential audience.  Like anything in business, it simply has to be done planned out and executed well.

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Why the Halftime theme Mike? 

I’m an Indiana Hoosier native where basketball is the top sport. Every team heads to the locker room at halftime to evaluate the first half and create an updated plan for the second half. That plan includes adjustments based on reviewing what worked and what didn't. The “halftime” is a key review point where the game stops, the team pulls away to huddle in the locker room away from the fans, and they come out prepared and ready to succeed in the second half.

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